Are you trying to have more money? Or receive more money but don’t know how to keep it? Or maybe you have all the money you need, but you are still missing something in your life?
My life’s journey has taken me from a childhood of poverty to the luxury of living in a castle in Italy. Here’s the thing though… all the riches in the world cannot fulfill you if you don’t understand the true spirit of wealth.
I grew up in a mining town in Scotland. We were so poor I had holes in the soles of my shoes. I walked three kilometers to school with plastic bags over my socks to keep my feet dry. At 10 years old, I watched Oliver and started making choices that would ensure a different future. That film made me realize that transformation was possible.
At 14, I jumped on a potato lorry to ensure I could have a job picking potatoes. This was the start of having my own money. At 15, I met my now ex-husband, and we began to create a different life together. By my late twenties we had become millionaires and continued to create riches and luxury. Even with multiple millions of British Pounds in the bank, I felt like I was dying inside. It was a poverty of being that could not be satiated by ‘things.’
What was missing from my life – as a poor child and as a very affluent woman – was the understanding that wealth requires so much more than just money.
I call wealth the ‘energy of creation.’ It is about embracing creativity, possibility, generosity, tenacity and gratitude in ways that allow who you are to create more in the world. If you want to be truly rich, learn to be wealthy in all aspects of living.
How do you start?
By embodying the qualities that allow you to create and have wealth:
Gratitude
Too often, people focus on what they don’t have instead of what they do, but gratitude is an element of creating wealth. Even though we sometimes had little food and slept in a freezing-cold house, I was always grateful for the small things. I enjoyed the walk to school; I was grateful I had legs and could feel nature on my skin. The more gratitude you have the more everything starts to change.
Awareness of Abundance
I always knew I would create a more abundant life. I had no hesitation in asking for more or choosing to follow what I knew would create a greater future. I had to remove the conclusions that I was poor, to create a reality where I was no longer poor. Changing my point of view invited a different set of choices so that my life became more and more abundant. What thoughts and beliefs can you change to choose more abundance right now?
Tenacity
When you live by the mantra: never give up, never give in, never quit you create the possibility for wealth. I committed myself to creating the wealth I knew was possible. I made a demand to have money. I tried to be a workhorse but quickly realized it was more effective to contribute my energy to our family business. I realized my gifts and capacities were less visible and more powerful than anything I could ‘do’ on the surface. There are many ways to create money. Be persistent in discovering your strengths!
Generosity of Spirit
When I was a child, a man in the pub heard that we didn’t have any food for Christmas lunch, so he left a hamper on our door. He had 10 children and couldn’t really afford to do so, so this created a huge life-changing moment for me. This is an example of the generosity of spirit which can change people’s worlds. It’s a key component of the spirit of wealth. If you want to become wealthier in spirit, ask where you can be generous – even if you imagine you can’t afford it right now. There’s always a possibility.
A Willingness to Invite Money
At 14 I befriended a girl from a middle-class family. Getting to know her family totally changed my life. They had a TV and a telephone. They took me to restaurants and the zoo, and on Sunday drives. This was the ‘energy’ I knew I wanted in my life, so I started asking for money and inviting it into my life. I was willing to ask for what I knew would create more.
Being wealthy is about knowing you can, and do, create your possibilities. Your point of view creates your reality. It comes down to how you are functioning. Whether you are being grateful, or happy, or miserable, or focusing on what you don’t have – whatever you put your focus on, is what you will end up with.
If you are operating from need and lack, that is what will show up. If you keep saying ‘I can’t get more money.’ That is what will happen. Creating wealth is all about shifting your energy towards what you desire.